Nitrogen in yer Tires???

[Rockrz]

I was listening to a local automotive call in talk show and they were talking about putting nitrogen in your tires.

They were claiming the primary benefit to doing this is that the air pressure in your ties will stay the same at all times and won't fluctuate up and down like you get using just air.

Anybody heard any details about any of this?

[HenryJ]

Yes. I fill mine with 70% nitrogen and have from day one. It costs nothing.

[Rockrz]

So, has it been your experience that your tire pressue level stays more consistant? Sounded to me like this was the only benefit for using nitrogen.

And, why not run 100%...would that hurt anything?

[HenryJ]

It would not hurt to run 100% nitrogen, but I would not pay for it. The benefits will be small.

Air= 20.9% oxygen, 70% nitrogen, the rest is a mix of others like CO, CO2, etc.

To get 100% nitrogen you would need to purge the tires prior to the introduction of the nitrogen. Just adding nitrogen to air them up will not be 100%. Be sure to check them after the tires reach operating temperature. Nitrogen introduced under pressure is very cold. Once they warm to ambient temperature the pressure may change.
While it may be more stable at a greater temperature range, on a street driven vehicle you may never experience the extremes where this would be measurable. Keep in mind that you are only adding less than 30% more than is in the air we breathe.
If you were racing with large tires , there may be a greater impact. Large tires with great amounts of heat would be an environment where you might feel a difference. Especially in a place where a few pounds can greatly effect the handling.

Don't get sold a bill of goods. If someone asks you to pay for a nitrogen filled tire say , "No , thanks. 70% is already adequate."
How do you REALLY know they are filling them with nitrogen? You can not smell it. Without the proper equipment you can not test it. It is not sampled and regulated by any agency. They could sell you pressurized air and you would not know. Heck, technically since air is 70% nitrogen, they would not be lying to sell it as pressurized nitrogen.
BUYER BEWARE.

[Rockrz]

Oh, I wasn't planning on doing this unless
there was some substantial benefits.

I've been running regular air for years
and it's always done a great job

[HenryJ]

See you are running Nitrogen too!

[04crewvt]

Well I haven't gotten around to trying Nitrogen. I started out with Hydrogen but the first burnout I did blew the rear axle right out from under me so I switched to Helium. That worked out ok till I forgot to put the anchor down in a parking lot on a windy day and by the time I got done I had to hike a half mile downwind to find it. Oxygen was ok but but I kept finding my tires flat from Octogenarians huffing it from my valve stems. Neon was next to get that great glowing ground effect I see on all the ricers but I couldn't find tires that were translucent enough and the voltage needed to light them up kept blowing fuses.

Guess I will stick with plain old AIR

[HenryJ]

Good stuff! I was a little off , I guess we run closer to 80% nitrogen:

Below, please find the sea-level composition of air (in percent by volume at the temperature of 15°C and the pressure of 101325 Pa)
First is the name of the component, then the chemical formula, then the percent concentration.

Nitrogen N2 78.084 %

Oxygen O2 20.9476 %

Argon Ar 0.934 %

Carbon Dioxide CO2 0.0314 %

Neon Ne 0.001818 %

Methane CH4 0.0002 %

Helium He 0.000524 %

Krypton Kr 0.000114 %

Hydrogen H2 0.00005 %

Xenon Xe 0.0000087 %

Also, please note that the air we breathe also contains water vapor (H20), the concentration of which depends on the current humidity level, along with pollutants and other small particles (e.g. "smog").

Didn't I see some translucent tires on a ricer? Toss some magnetic pellets in them to generate a charge and light'em up!